My route into therapeutic work has been both professional and deeply personal.

I began my working life in information technology, spending eighteen years in the corporate world as a computer specialist and programmer. Although I appeared capable and successful, I experienced depression and began to question what it really meant to feel well, fulfilled and fully human. That search eventually led me away from IT and into the work I do today.

I qualified as a Clinical Hypnotherapist in 2003 and opened The Body Matters in Leigh-on-Sea in 2008. Since then, my work has continued to deepen through somatic therapy, embodied meditation and the Realization Process, in which I am now one of only two Senior Teachers in the UK.

I am also an author. My first book, Ten, draws on my personal experiences of healing, loss, change and the search for a deeper way of living. Writing has become another way for me to explore and share what it means to meet life honestly and become more fully human.

Meditation has been central to my life since 2008, including a period living and studying in a Chinese monastery. I am now a Buddhist monk, although my work is open to people of all beliefs and none. My spiritual practice has not taken me away from ordinary human experience; it has helped me sit more honestly with anxiety, grief, illness, uncertainty and the ways we learn to protect ourselves.

I bring together two aspects of myself that can sometimes appear separate: the analytical and the intuitive, the scientific and the spiritual. This enables me to speak about complex ideas in a grounded and accessible way.

I have learned through both professional experience and my own life that understanding ourselves is valuable, but insight alone does not always change how we feel. Sometimes the body continues to brace, protect and repeat familiar patterns even when the mind understands why.

At the heart of my work is a simple belief: we are not broken. Healing is not about becoming someone else. It is about gently releasing what prevents us from fully inhabiting ourselves and discovering greater ease, freedom and connection within the life we already have.

Additional Information

I've always had an interest in meditation, and meditation has been an important and integral part of my life since 2008. I even visited China for 3 months to live and study in a Monastery! 

I work primarily with adults experiencing anxiety, chronic stress, overwhelm, difficulty switching off, sleep problems, low confidence, people-pleasing, emotional disconnection or patterns that have not shifted through talking and intellectual understanding alone.

Depending on your individual needs, sessions may draw upon clinical hypnotherapy, somatic therapy, embodied meditation and the Realization Process. I do not follow a rigid formula or assume that one approach will suit everyone. Our work is shaped by what you are experiencing and what feels safe, appropriate and helpful for you.

Sessions are collaborative and proceed at a pace that respects your nervous system. You will not be pressured to disclose more than feels comfortable or pushed towards a predetermined outcome. The intention is to help you develop greater inner steadiness, soften habitual protective patterns and feel more connected to yourself in everyday life.

I offer:

• Individual clinical hypnotherapy and somatic therapy
• One-to-one embodied and somatic meditation
• Somatic Healing Massage
• The twelve-month Ayurveda Amnanda Process
• Group somatic meditation classes
• Workplace wellbeing talks, workshops and meditation sessions

Appointments are available in person at The Body Matters in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. Some forms of individual therapy and meditation are also available online.

I welcome an initial conversation before booking. This gives you the opportunity to explain what you would like support with, ask questions about my approach and decide whether you feel comfortable working with me. If I believe another practitioner or form of support would be more appropriate for your needs, I will always be honest about this.